Last week, reports began to swirl around the internet that
AMD slashed 5% of its workforce. AMD denied
the reports and issued a statement saying, "We did not have a
workforce reduction."

It appears that the reports of job cuts were true; however,
the size and timing of the layoffs were wrong. According to Information
Week, AMD plans to axe off 1,600 employees before the close of
September -- this would represent a 10% reduction in AMD's current workforce of
16,000 employees.

The jobs are a necessary move to help lift AMD from the
gutter in terms of financial performance. AMD did not disclose which locations
or what positions within the company would see the bulk of the workforce reduction.

AMD had a rough 2007 and reported revenues of $1.77B and a
$1.722B loss during the closing
quarter of the year. 2007 yearly totals saw AMD with $6.012B in revenue and
a net loss of $3.379B.

AMD expects that Q1 revenue will come in at roughly $1.5B or
15% lower than Q4 2007 -- the loss came from an unexpected decline in every
market that AMD competes.

We will still have to wait a few days longer to hear the
full damage report for AMD's Q1 earnings. Despite the already grim forecast,
AMD is looking forward to the latter half of the year when it will push its
45nm processors to customers.

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No kidding. Dell comes to mind. Start knifing jobs as soon as you get to numero uno.

At that point you start to question, What is the point? Do we really have to have our stock prices go up every year? Can't we just let those $100k+ big boys take a hit for once? Lord knows, they could use it...

I really do hope AMD gets in the game. Phenom 9*50 isn't bad (at least they can beat a Q6600...), but they aren't over the hill yet.

Phenom is pretty good in its current form. It would have been much better had come earlier and not been botched when it finally did arrive.

But overall Phenom is an example of what AMD can't do if it wants to make it in the long run. They need at least competitive architectures on time and somehow ramp up their manufacturing process and clock speeds.

NO, because they earned it and everyone else didn't. If you don't want to get laid off then you should go to better schools and earn it! After all, nothing random happens to people and you should never be imposed on by society by having to help out anyone else with what you have rightly earned for yourself. Anything else is just fascist-liberal-communism. I shouldn't have to pay money for your kids to go to public school if I send mine to private school. I don't care if your family can't afford health-care! Get a job and pay for it!

quote: After all, nothing random happens to people and you should never be imposed on by society

Indeed, cut out the middle man (government waste, the federal reserve) and everyone will be richer, leading to more affordable everything, a competitive market free of special privileges (NAFTA, WTO, HMO act), more jobs, and a rate of charity not seen since the 19th century rather than fighting poverty by creating it with morally repugnant redistribution of wealth schemes that get more useless and unsustainable by the day due to inflation rates intentionally understated by the CPI.

quote: Can't we just let those $100k+ big boys take a hit for once? Lord knows, they could use it...

Almost sad when Hector Ruiz gets a 5% raise, AMD is cutting jobs. It's just the nature of the beast; it's just what happens with big companies. Why cut into your earnings when you can cut into someone else's, when you can?

Yes it is sad that someone is losing their job. Lay offs are always bad. However if AMD can cut costs and keep the company afloat, that would save 15,000 jobs.

It is also more likely that Hector Ruiz raise was already pre-agreed by the board prior to downturn or part of position package.

My opinion is that raises such as this are not the fault of the person but the ignorance of the board and major stock holders. On the other hand, a 5% raise even if the ammount is in the millions is negligable to company.

If he was an honorable person, Hector should refuse the raise and pass the money on to the employees being layed off in the form of better lay-off packages.